Poll

Discounted homes for first-time buyers will impact on housing markets

Date: 23/10/2015

The government's plans to create discounted homes for first-time buyers could have a range of unintended consequences on local housing markets.

Mike Kiely, the Chair of the POS Board of Trustees, told Planning magazine "If Starter Homes were discounted in perpetuity, then you can see how the policy would work. But allowing them to be sold at market rates after a few years threatens to undermine the whole economic rationale. If you know that you're going to get a 20 per cent cash bonus after five years, mortgage lenders will have to take that into account in valuing the house."